As My World Turns

Monday, June 1, 2015

6/1/2015
Today was a good day, actually God gave us another gorgeous Florida day! Plenty of warm sunshine, a tiny breeze and a splash of rain! Along with the weather came hope. A new nurse for Eric with a great attitude! New outlooks... He was trying to talk to her! When you have friends surrounding you and supporting you then you can keep believing things will get better. The neurologist pretty much said, "This is how he is going to be" . As if Eric will always act like a 6 month old. Followed by Shriner's visit who filled my empty cup back up! They see children do things doctors say they never can. It is a roller coaster, but the good swoops outweigh the fear of climbing. I'm tired. So I pray for energy, wisdom and favor! I will never give up on what Eric is capable of, he already surpassed goals! God is in control!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

It's that time again! Strawberry Festival Parade Day!
Another year gone by that I could not predict a day of! The weather has gotten cold for us Floridians, now warming right back up, yay! Landon has 2 friends overnight to go to the parade. Hillary is on a date with Benson and they will go with 2 more of her friends. Mallory has her family and bunch of friends. Ryan will stay home with Ryder and I will take Calissa. We all dress in our "berry best"! It is a tradition that we go to eat at ABC Pizza and sit by the creek on the shady side and watch the lengthy but wonderful parade! In the evening we will go back and watch the "Happy Together" tour on stage. I love the festival at night with all the lights. The whole festival goes for 11 days and Plant City changes during this time. Lots of volunteers to make it all flow and thousands of people daily coming into town! This year I want to try these new homeade potatoe chips with strawberry sauce on them! Each year we try something new, also they have bacon on a stick dipped in pancake batter! This should be a fun year to let the grandbabies ride the rides! Paisley age 5, Calissa age 2, Cason age 2 and Ryder age 1. Then little man Eric age 4- he will probably do better at Busch Gardens.
Eric is not able to go as I took him the other day for a routine pulmonologist appt. which lead to going to USF for a check x-ray to discover his little coughs are a pneumonia- basically! But we caught it at the beginning so all is good! He probably caught this viral cold from all of us. He could go in his wheelchair for a short bit, but not if its too hot and the dust would be harmful to him right now.

Thoughts, on awesome preaching tonight- nobody can take away my beliefs or desires to serve God! The burning in my heart is priceless and Jesus put it there to save my soul! What peace that brings me when we go through turmoil. When I'm hurting and confused, I have that to comfort myself.
I wonder what this next year will bring. What plans I should be making. I haven't been able to plan our future for a couple years now as the courts have slowed it down. All my life I have been a "planner" and I'm not sure what to do now! So day by day is all I plan. Some week by week but that may be pushing it. Eric may live with us forever, or may be here in our home part-time. Until we get answers I need to learn to live more spontaneously. He certainly has had to.
No more pity party on myself!
We look forward to date nights, maybe a weekend trip to Daytona for Bike Week or Jeep Beach. Hopefully we will get a trip in May to Vegas- Greg wants to go see Donny and Marie Show! I love to just travel and go rather it is on the Harley, a plane or a train! Even the car or a cruise- with just us or the family, I love to travel!
Time for me to fall asleep, that nap I had today is messing my clock up!

Saturday, February 21, 2015

This week has been quieter than normal, and I'm thanking God in advance for showing me mercy before I begin a new week! Proverbs 3:3 "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart" so stay kind and loving, and tell the truth all the time! Not when it's convenient, or you're in the mood, but bind it around your neck! Wow, when I write something on my heart, it has to be important!
It doesn't make me feel any better to be cruel when someone has hurt me, or I'm stressed out! Acting Christ like and showing others mercy helps me handle my bad days better!
Today I got to babysit two of my grandchildren, Calissa age 2 1/2 and Ryder age 1 1/2; I have Eric who is special needs and is age 4. I did not have his nurse today. I kept them all happy, fed, cleaned, lots of attention and hugs! Making them laugh and truly appreciating hearing them giggle! They were loving the sounds coming from each other. This doesn't mean they didn't fuss, or that I didn't need a break! I was happy they needed a nap just so I could get some housework done. Eric needs to be put in his stander device for an hour a day, I have to feed him via g-tube, give him meds, brush his teeth, bath him, put his AFO's on his feet, change diapers, and he didn't throw up today so he had a great day! I had a great day!
I always show him mercy, kindness, love, compassion.... Not because he is handicapped but he needs it. He deserves it. All humans do actually, all five of my grandchildren need it from me. That's how I want them to remember me when they are good and bad, happy and sad. So why do we not thrive to show that same kind of love to a person who cuts us off in traffic? Show means let them see. Be understanding or forgiving, don't take things so personal and lash out. Maybe their day is really awful and they didn't mean to cut you off?
I remember the weeks of turmoil we went through with Eric's accident. I'm sure I drove carelessly, I'm sure I seemed spacey, as our lives were turned upside down. Huge decisions, fear, headaches, bad eating, phones ringing, wrong directions, crying, lack of sleep, arguing, and no normal routine. We were thrown out of life it seemed. So maybe we don't see others problems, may be that is what they are going through- when they need mercy from you. Mercy & Grace

Thursday, October 30, 2014

10/30/14 Thursday midnight
As we go through a second year, of caring for Eric, we stay plugged in- or we fail. So many rewards, trials and tears! Our grandson is 4 and nearly died with a near drown accident 2 years ago. He is now a TBI patient. Traumatic Brain Injury, quadrapelegic. Alive and happier than others that can do way more than him.
We do 6 therapies a week now, adding all the time. His biological parents have surrendered their rights to him last month. We are step-family. Well, we were. We are caregivers. We are Gramma and PeePaw and Dada is my son in Eric's eyes. We cannot write our own stories no matter how much people say dream and believe and stay strong and all that positive stuff. Our sweet, handsome Eric still cannot talk, walk, eat or sit up by himself.
Eric's Journey I call it. Tomorrow we turn in swallow study and speech evaluation, to try and start at a new Speech and Occupational Therapy, closer to home. I would like to take him more frequent. I'm so tired. I finally lived knowing what weary really is. And strength and character! I sit up at night and play on Pinterest to have down time. I need to start running again, like daily not once a week!
Tomorrow is Halloween! Trick or Treat, All treats tailgate party! Eric will be Batman, PeePaw is Superman and I am Super Girl!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

As the summer of 2010 flies by~ oh my heart aches for all the past summers of my children being little! My 18 year old is on a Missions trip to Mexico and though I'm happy for her I am also ready to know she is safely back in the good ole' USofA!! We didn't make a lot of goals for summer, just one big one RELAX! It goes by quick enough no matter what. I have a few good friends I need to catch up with, I need time with my momma to shop and laugh - oh and eat! We like the bookstores! I want to stroll my grandaughter Paisley and ride my bicycle. I love to go on picnics with Landon and the beach with the rest of them. I bought a new collapsable picnic basket from Target- need to put it to use. The weather has been good - I need to soak up some vitamin D but today looks like rain. But it smells good outside! Ryan turned 27 , Mallory 24- where have the moments gone? I just can't grasp enough of my kids life. My Mom must feel like that too. You have to create your own life because it hurts when they don't need you as much as you want them to. At least for a mom, I think a dad is really different. I'm 46 but not a very big girl at times! Haha- like a baby whining for attention! So- I stay busy, I have a lot of things I like to do. I have been losing weight, Yoga and crunches and riding bike or gettin' on the treadmill. My life is sweet- precious and I give God the Glory for all He has blessed me with. I want to soak up summer and stare at their little faces, I want to keep memories of every phase and wonder they have. I am thankful for memories I have. My kids are the absolute greatest, I mean they show the campassion and love for life that I wanted them to, all four of them! we have done a great job, God, Greg and I! Oh yeah!!!!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Paisley BrookeMy sunshine! My granddaughter that is six months old, I am trying to teach her to wave and say MAMA or DADA, and pattycake! She is absolutely adorable, she lights up a room with her smile, she is precious, cute as a button, fun and oh so happy! I love to take her strolling and she loves to be outside. She is lucky to have a family like ours. I called her Petunia today and her momma looked at me like I was crazy. I said that is what my grandpa used to call us and my momma calls me and my girls. It's a beautiful colorful flower not an odd name - like the look she gave me! Maybe it reminds her of tunafish? I would rather look like a Petunia than a pumpkin and lotsa people call babies and children "Pumpkin"! or Punkin! Paisley, you are my sweetie, and I hope we spend lotsa time together as you grow, and that you will remember as much as possible. Your Grandpa loves you and I think you know that the way you smile as he enters the room! We have a big family and lotsa big plans for YOU!

Today is my grandmother's birthday, she has passed away. But it is also my daughter Mallory's birthday too! And I am so thankful God gave me her! I babysat her little girl, Paisley, today as she went and got her hair done. My happiest days are like today has been... I have seen my husband, son Ryan, daughter's Mallory and Hillary, son Landon, grandbaby Paisley, and will see my Mom today too! That is really what our life is all about. On my fireplace is a sign~ "FAMILY~ is all that matters" and so today, I'm happy. I hope I can do all that they expect out of me. I want my memories of me one day to be that I was happy, positive to be around, uplifting and fun! Yes, I want to be missed... one day, a long time from now! I had Big Band and Swing music on tv, worked on college forms for Hillary, cleaned and now it is time to get dressed up and celebrate a special birthday, # 24 for my baby girl! Dinner and a movie, our favorite! God has blessed me more than I thought He would when I was younger. Only thing that could be better is to have my sisters and brother and their families closer by. But I will cherish what I have and how it is regardless. I love the warm Florida sunshine that is coming through my window, I love my hot cup of Cafe' Francais sitting here, I love my puppy Fancy beside me and that the house is sooooo quiet now; knowing it is temporary, that's a good thing! I am thankful for my memory- for real- as I feel the sunshine and hear the stillness, I can remember being little and carefree and it is so vivid that I can say God was with me then and is with me now. And Amen to this part of my day in my world!

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About Me

I'm in my early 50's, happily married to Greg for 32 years! I have four fantastic children, a wonderful son-in-law, and oh my gosh~ my 5 grandbabies~ they take my breath away! I love being with my family and traveling. I am a Christian, very involved in my church. A Mom is what I love being best at! I like to stay busy, I ride my bike, run, shop with my mom and girls, hang out with my sons, love Daytona Beach or any beach, bookstores, shoes, cooking, baking, reading, writing, volunteering and being creative! Fall is my favorite time of year- anywhere!